Name for the decade[edit]

In the English-speaking world, a name for the decade was never universally accepted in the same manner as for decades such as the '80s, the '90s, etc.[9][10][11]

Orthographically, the decade can be written as the "2000s" or the "'00s". Some people read "2000s" as "two-thousands", and thus simply refer to the decade as the "Two-Thousands", the "Twenty Hundreds", or the "Twenty-ohs". Some read it as the "00s" (pronounced "Ohs", "Oh Ohs", "Double Ohs" or "Ooze"), while others referred to it as the "Zeros".[10][12] On January 1, 2000, the BBC listed the noughties (derived from "nought"[13] a word used for zero in many English-speaking countries), as a potential moniker for the new decade.[14] This has become a common name for the decade in the UK[15][16][17][18][19] and Australia,[20][21] as well as other Anglospheric countries.

Others have advocated the term "the aughts", a term widely used at the beginning of the 20th century for its first decade.[22][23] The American Dialect Society holds a lighthearted annual poll for word of the year and related subcategories. For 2009, the winner in the "least likely to succeed" category was "Any name of the decade 2000–2009, such as: Noughties, Aughties, Oughties, etc."[24]

When the "20-" is dropped, the individual years within the decade are usually referred to as starting with an "oh", such as "oh-seven" to refer to the year 2007. The option "aught-seven", for whatever reason, has never caught on idiomatically. When the "20-" is retained, two options are available in speech, both of which have idiomatic currency: "two thousand seven" in American English ("two thousand and seven" in the UK) or "twenty-oh-seven". During the 2000s decade, it was more common to hear the first pattern than the second. For example, the 9/11 attacks were much more commonly spoken of as occurring in "two thousand (and) one" than in "twenty-oh-one", although the latter was using or containing expressions natural to a native speaker of a language, as the first context to the year 2001 in popular culture had been the top-grossing movie 2001: A Space Odyssey (film): released in 1968 it popularised the full pronunciation as a number rather than as a year, being deliberately chosen by the author as a distant-sounding future for the science fiction setting; whereas, by the 2010s, people grew used to hearing the "twenty-" prefix in speech more often. Under this influence, it became a bit more common to refer to the individual years of the decade as "twenty-oh-seven" or "twenty-oh-eight" than it had been during the 2000s, although the "two thousand seven" pattern is still dominant.[citation needed]

The War on Terror generated extreme controversy around the world, with questions regarding the justification for U.S. actions leading to a loss of support for the American government, both in and outside the United States.[27] Additional armed conflict occurred in the Middle East, including between Israel and Hezbollah, then with Israel and Hamas. The greatest loss of life due to natural disaster came from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which caused a tsunami that killed around one quarter-million people and displaced well over a million others. Cooperative international rescue missions by many countries from around the world helped in efforts by the most affected nations to rebuild and recover from the devastation. An enormous loss of life and property value came in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina flooded nearly the entire city of New Orleans. The resulting political fallout was severely damaging to the George W. Bush administration because of its perceived failure to act promptly and effectively. In 2008, Barack Obama was elected President of the United States and became the first African-American U.S. president when he succeeded Bush in 2009.[28]

2006 Lebanon War (summer 2006) – took place in southern Lebanon and northern Israel. The principal parties were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military. The war that began as military operation in response to the abduction of two Israeli reserve soldiers by the Hezbollah, gradually strengthened and became a wider confrontation.

Second Intifada (2000–2005) – After the signing of the Oslo Accords failed to bring about a Palestinian state, in September 2000 the Second Intifada (uprising) broke out, a period of intensified Palestinian-Israeli violence, which has been taking place until the present day. As a result of the significant increase of suicide bombing attacks within Israeli population centers during the first years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada,[31] in June 2002 Israel began the construction of the West Bank Fence along the Green Line border arguing that the barrier is necessary to protect Israeli civilians from Palestinian terrorism. The significantly reduced number of incidents of suicide bombings from 2002 to 2005 has been partly attributed to the barrier.[32] The barrier's construction, which has been highly controversial, became a major issue of contention between the two sides. The Second Intifada has caused thousands of victims on both sides, both among combatants and among civilians – The death toll, including both military and civilian, is estimated to be 5,500 Palestinians and over 1,000 Israelis, as well as 64 foreign citizens.[33] Many Palestinians consider the Second Intifada to be a legitimate war of national liberation against foreign occupation, whereas many Israelis consider it to be a terrorist campaign.[34]

2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict – the frequent HamasQassam rocket and mortar fire launched from within civilian population centers in Gaza towards the Israeli southern civilian communities led to an Israeli military operation in Gaza, which had the stated aim of reducing the Hamas rocket attacks and stopping the arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip. Throughout the conflict Hamas further intensified its rocket and mortar attacks against Israel, hitting civilian targets and reaching major Israeli cities Beersheba and Ashdod for the first time. The intense urban warfare in densely populated Gaza combined with the use of heavy firepower by the Israeli side[35] and the intensified Hamas rocket attacks towards populated Israeli civilian targets led to a high toll on the Palestinian side and among civilians.[36]

The Second Congo War (1998–2003) – took place largely in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The widest interstate war in modern African history, it directly involved nine African nations, as well as about twenty armed groups, and earned the epithet of "Africa's World War" and the "Great War of Africa." An estimated 3.8 million people died, mostly from starvation and disease brought about by the deadliest conflict since World War II. Millions more were displaced from their homes or sought asylum in neighboring countries.

2008 South Ossetia war – Russia invaded Georgia in response to Georgian aggression towards civilians and attack on South Ossetia. Both Russia and Georgia were condemned internationally for their actions.

Mexican Drug War (2006–present) – an armed conflict fought between rival drug cartels and government forces in Mexico. Although Mexican drug cartels, or drug trafficking organizations, have existed for quite some time, they have become more powerful since the demise of Colombia's Cali and Medellín cartels in the 1990s. Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the United States.[49] Arrests of key cartel leaders, particularly in the Tijuana and Gulf cartels, have led to increasing drug violence as cartels fight for control of the trafficking routes into the United States.[50][51][52] Roughly more than 16,851 people in total were killed between December 2006 until November 2009.[53]

Map showing the districts where the Naxalite movement is active (2007)

In India, Naxalite–Maoist insurgency (1967–present) has grown alarmingly with attacks such as April 2010 Maoist attack in Dantewada, Jnaneswari Express train derailment, and Rafiganj train disaster. Naxalites are a group of far-left radical communists, supportive of Maoist political sentiment and ideology. It is presently the longest continuously active conflict worldwide. In 2006 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the Naxalites "The single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country."[54] In 2009, he said the country was "losing the battle against Maoist rebels".[55] According to standard definitions the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency is an ongoing conflict[56] between Maoist groups, known as Naxalites or Naxals, and the Indian government.[54] On April 6, 2010, Maoist rebels killed 75 security forces in a jungle ambush in central India in the worst-ever massacre of security forces by the insurgents. On the same day, Gopal, a top Maoist leader, said the attack was a "direct consequence" of the government's Operation Green Hunt offensive. This raised some voices of use of Indian Air Force against Naxalites, which were however declined citing "We can't use oppressive force against our own people".[57]

The Colombian Armed Conflict continues causing deaths and terror in Colombia. Beginning in 1964, the FARC and ELN narcoterrorist groups were taking control of rural areas of the country by the beginning of the decade, while terrorist paramilitaries grew in other places as businesspeople and politicians thought the State would lose the war against guerrillas. However, after the failure of the peace process and the activation of Plan Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez was elected President in 2002, starting a massive attack on terrorist groups, with cooperation from civil population, foreign aid and legal armed forces. The AUC paramilitary organization disbanded in 2006, while ELN guerrillas have been weakened. The Popular Liberation Army demobilized while the country's biggest terrorist group, FARC has been weakened and most of their top commanders have been killed or died during the decade. During the second half of the decade, a new criminal band has been formed by former members of AUC who did not demobilize, calling themselves Aguilas Negras. Although the Colombian State has taken back control over most of the country, narcoterrorism still causes pain in the country. Since 2008, the Internet has become a new field of battle. Facebook has gained nationwide popularity and has become the birthplace of many civil movements against narcoterrorism such as "Colombia Soy Yo" (I am Colombia) or "Fundación Un Millón de Voces" (One Million Voices Foundation), responsible for the international protests against illegal groups during the last years.

The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002) came to an end when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) finally laid down their arms. More than two million people were displaced from their homes because of the conflict (well over one-third of the population) many of whom became refugees in neighboring countries. Tens of thousands were killed during the conflict.[58]

The Angolan Civil War (1975–2002), once a major proxy conflict of the Cold War, the conflict ended after the anti-Communist organization UNITA disbanded to become a political party. By the time the 27-year conflict was formally brought to an end, an estimated 500,000 people had been killed.[62]

Shia insurgency in Yemen (2004–present) – a civil war in the Sadaa Governorate of Yemen. It began after the ShiaZaidiyyah sect launched an uprising against the Yemeni government. The Yemeni government has accused Iran of directing and financing the insurgency.[63] Thousands of rebels and civilians have been killed during the conflict.[64][65]

Civil war in Chad (2005–present) – involved Chadian government forces and several Chadian rebel groups. The Government of Chad estimated in January 2006 that 614 Chadian citizens had been killed in cross-border raids.[69] The fighting still continues despite several attempts to reach agreements.

Nepalese Civil War (1996–2006) – the conflict ended with a peace agreement was reached between the government and the Maoist party in which it was set that the Maoists would take part in the new government in return for surrendering their weapons to the UN. It is estimated that more than 12,700 people were killed during the course of the conflict.[70]

Ituri conflict (1999–2007) – a conflict fought between the Lendu and Hema ethnic groups in the Ituri region of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). While there have been many phases to the conflict, the most recent armed clashes ran from 1999 to 2003, with a low-level conflict continuing until 2007. More than 50,000 people have been killed in the conflict and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes.[71]

2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt – a failed military coup d'état on April 11, 2002, which aimed to overthrow the president of Venezuela Hugo Chávez. During the coup Hugo Chávez was arrested and Pedro Carmona became the interim President for 47 hours. The coup led to a pro-Chávez uprising that the Metropolitan Police attempted to suppress. The pro-Chávez Presidential Guard eventually retook the Miraflores presidential palace without firing a shot, leading to the collapse of the Carmona government.

Fatah–Hamas conflict (2006–2009) – an armed conflict fought between the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas with each vying to assume political control of the Palestinian territories. In June 2007, Hamas took control of the entire Gaza Strip, and established a separate government while Fatah remained in control of the West Bank. This in practice divided the Palestinian Authority into two. Various forces affiliated with Fatah engaged in combat with Hamas, in numerous gun battles. Most Fatah leaders eventually escaped to Egypt and the West Bank, while some were captured and killed.

Nuclear threats[edit]

Since 2005, Iran's nuclear program has become the subject of contention with the Western world due to suspicions that Iran could divert the civilian nuclear technology to a weapons program. This has led the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against Iran on select companies linked to this program, thus furthering its economic isolation on the international scene. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence said in February 2009 that Iran would not realistically be able to a get a nuclear weapon until 2013, if it chose to develop one.[72]

In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq over allegations that its leader Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction including chemical and biological weapons or was in the process of creating them. None were found spawning multiple theories.

Operation Orchard – during the operation, Israel bombed what was believed to be a Syrian nuclear reactor on September 6, 2007 which was thought to be built with the aid of North Korea.[73] The White House and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) later declared that American intelligence indicated the site was a nuclear facility with a military purpose, though Syria denies this.[74]

The Doomsday Clock, the symbolic representation of the threat of nuclear annihilation, moved four minutes closer to midnight: two minutes in 2002 and two minutes in 2007 to 5 minutes to midnight.

National sovereignty[edit]

East Timor regains independence from Indonesia in 2002. Portugal granted independence to East Timor in 1975, but it was soon after invaded by Indonesia, which only recognized East Timorese independence in 2002.

Montenegro gains independence from State union with Serbia in 2006. Although not an EU member, Montenegro uses the Euro as its national currency.

Mexico[edit]

Vicente Fox was elected President of Mexico in the 2000 presidential election, making him the first president elected from an opposition party in 71 years, defeating the then-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

United States of America[edit]

On October 26, 2001 U.S. President George W. Bush signs the USA PATRIOT Act into law.

On February 15, 2003 anti-war protests broke out around the world in opposition to the U.S. Invasion of Iraq, in what the Guinness Book of World Records called the largest anti-war rally in human history.[76] In reaction, New York Times writer Patrick Tyler wrote in a February 17 article that: ...the huge anti-war demonstrations around the world this weekend are reminders that there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion.[77]

On June 5, 2004, Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, died after having suffered from Alzheimer's disease for nearly a decade. His seven-day state funeral followed, spanning June 5–11. The general public stood in long lines waiting for a turn to view the casket. People passed by the casket at a rate of about 5,000 per hour (83.3 per minute resp. 1.4 per second) and the wait time was about three hours. In all, 104,684 passed through when Reagan lay in state.[78][79]

Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States in 2009, becoming the nation's first African American president.

South America[edit]

Álvaro Uribe is elected President of Colombia in 2002, the first political independent to do so in more than a century and a half, creating the centre-right political movement known as uribism. Uribe was re-elected in 2006.

Left-wing governments emerge in South American countries. These governments include those of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela since 1999, Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and Evo Morales in Bolivia. With the creation of the ALBA, Fidel Castro—leader of Cuba since 1959—and Hugo Chávez reaffirmed their opposition to the aggressive militarism and imperialism of the United States.

In July 2000 the Camp David 2000 Summit was held which was aimed at reaching a "final status" agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis. The summit collapsed after Yasser Arafat would not accept a proposal drafted by American and Israeli negotiators. Barak was prepared to offer the entire Gaza Strip, a Palestinian capital in a part of East Jerusalem, 73% of the West Bank (excluding eastern Jerusalem) raising to 90–94% after 10–25 years, and financial reparations for Palestinian refugees for peace. Arafat turned down the offer without making a counter-offer.[82]

2009 Iranian election protests – The 2009 Iranian presidential election sparked massive protests in Iran and around the world against alleged electoral fraud and in support of defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. During the protests the Iranian authorities closed universities in Tehran, blocked web sites, blocked cell phone transmissions and text messaging,[85] and banned rallies.[86] Several demonstrators in Iran were killed or imprisoned during the protests. Dozens of human casualties were reported or confirmed.[87][88][89]

December 27, 2007 – Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani prime minister, was assassinated at an election rally in Rawalpindi by a bomb blast. The assassination attempt also killed at least 80 other people.

On May 12, 2008, over 69,000 are killed in central south-west China by the Wenchuan quake, an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the moment magnitude scale. The epicenter was 90 kilometers (56 mi) west-northwest of the provincial capital Chengdu, Sichuan province.

February 7–March 14, 2009 – The Black Saturday bushfires, the deadliest bushfires in Australian history, took place across the Australian state of Victoria during extreme bushfire-weather conditions, resulting in 173 people killed and more than 500 injured and around 7,500 homeless. The fires came after Melbourne recorded the highest-ever temperature (46.4 °C or 115.5 °F) of any capital city in Australia. The majority of the fires were ignited by either fallen or clashing power lines or deliberately lit.

The cold snap of 2009-2010 caused disturbed life in Europe, Asia and America. A total of 21 people were reported to have died during the cold spell in the UK. In Russia, by 26 December 2009 Saint Petersburg was under 35 cm of snow, creating the largest December snowfall recorded in the city since 1881. Winter of 2009–2010 in Europe.

Epidemics[edit]

Antibiotic resistance is a serious and growing phenomenon in contemporary medicine and has emerged as one of the eminent public health concerns of the 21st century, particularly as it pertains to pathogenic organisms (the term is not especially relevant to organisms which don't cause disease in humans).

The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom in 2001 caused a crisis in British agriculture and tourism. This epizootic saw 2,000 cases of the disease in farms across most of the British countryside. Over 10 million sheep and cattle were killed.

Between November 2002 and July 2003, an outbreak of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred in Hong Kong, with 8,273 cases and 775 deaths worldwide (9.6% fatality) according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Within weeks, SARS spread from Hong Kong to infect individuals in 37 countries in early 2003.

The 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) flu pandemic is also considered a natural disaster. On October 25, 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama officially declared H1N1 a national emergency[94] Despite President Obama's concern, a Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll found in October 2009 that an overwhelming majority of New Jerseyans (74%) were not very worried or not at all worried about contracting the H1N1 flu virus.[95]

A study conducted in coordination with the University of Michigan Health Service is scheduled for publication in the December 2009 American Journal of Roentgenology warning that H1N1 flu can cause pulmonary embolism, surmised as a leading cause of death in this current pandemic. The study authors suggest physician evaluation via contrast enhanced CT scans for the presence of pulmonary emboli when caring for patients diagnosed with respiratory complications from a "severe" case of the H1N1 flu.[96]

March 21, 2010 worldwide update by the U.N.'s World Health Organization (WHO) states that "213 countries and overseas territories/communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 16,931 deaths."[97]

As of May 30, 2010 worldwide update by World Health Organization (WHO) more than 214 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including over 18,138 deaths.[98]

Footnote:

The Walkerton Tragedy is a series of events that accompanied the contamination of the water supply of Walkerton, Ontario, Canada, by E. coli bacteria in May 2000. Starting May 11, 2000, many residents of the community of about 5,000 people began to simultaneously experience bloody diarrhea, gastrointestinal infections and other symptoms of E. coli infection. Seven people died directly from drinking the E. coli contaminated water, who might have been saved if the Walkerton Public Utilities Commission had admitted to contaminated water sooner, and about 2,500 became ill.

Non-natural disasters[edit]

Vehicular wrecks[edit]

On July 25, 2000, Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde aircraft, crashed into a hotel in Gonesse just after takeoff from Paris, killing all 109 aboard and 4 in the hotel. This was the only Concorde accident in which fatalities occurred. It was the beginning of the end for Concorde as an airliner; the type was retired three years later.

Economics[edit]

The most significant evolution of the early 2000s in the economic landscape was the long-time predicted breakthrough of economic giant China, which had double-digit growth during nearly the whole decade. To a lesser extent, India also benefited from an economic boom[99] which saw the two most populous countries becoming an increasingly dominant economic force.[100] The rapid catching-up of emerging economies with developed countries sparked some protectionist tensions during the period and was partly responsible for an increase in energy and food prices at the end of the decade. The economic developments in the latter third of the decade were dominated by a worldwide economic downturn, which started with the crisis in housing and credit in the United States in late 2007, and led to the bankruptcy of major banks and other financial institutions.[101] The outbreak of this global financial crisis sparked a global recession, beginning in the United States and affecting most of the industrialized world.

A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research at United Nations University reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000. The three richest people possess more financial assets than the lowest 48 nations combined.[citation needed] The combined wealth of the "10 million dollar millionaires" grew to nearly $41 trillion in 2008.[102]

In 2007, it was reported that in the UK, one pound in every seven spent went to the Tesco grocery and general merchandise retailer.[112]

On October 9, 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at the record level of 14,164.53. Two days later on October 11, the Dow would trade at its highest intra-day level ever, at the 14,198.10 mark.[113] In what would normally take many years to accomplish; numerous reasons were cited for the Dow's extremely rapid rise from the 11,000 level in early 2006, to the 14,000 level in late 2007. They included future possible takeovers and mergers, healthy earnings reports particularly in the tech sector, and moderate inflationary numbers; fueling speculation the Federal Reserve would not raise interest rates. Roughly on par with the 2000 record when adjusted for inflation, this represented the final high of the cyclical bull. The index closed 2007 at 13,264.82, a level it would not surpass for nearly five years.

The world economy by nominal GDP almost doubled in size from U.S. $30.21 trillion in 1999 to U.S. $58.23 trillion in 2009. This figure is not adjusted for inflation. By PPP, world GDP rose 78%, according to the IMF. But inflation adjusted nominal GDP rose only 42%, according to IMF constant price growth rates.[116] The following figures are not inflation adjusted nominal GDP and should be interpreted with extreme caution:

The United States (U.S. $14.26 trillion) retained its position of possessing the world's largest economy. However, the size of its contribution to the total global economy dropped from 28.8% to 24.5% by nominal price or a fall from 23.8% to 20.4% adjusted for purchasing power.

Japan (U.S. $5.07 trillion) retained its position of possessing the second largest economy in the world, but its contribution to the world economy also shrank significantly from 14.5% to 8.7% by nominal price or a fall from 7.8% to 6.0% adjusted for purchasing power.

China (U.S. $4.98 trillion) went from being the sixth largest to the third largest economy, and in 2009 contributed to 8.6% of the world's economy, up from 3.3% in 1999 by nominal price or a rise from 6.9% to 12.6% adjusted for purchasing power.

While global trade rose in the decade (partially driven by China's entry into the WTO in 2001), there was little progress in the multilateral trading system. International trade continued to expand during the decade as emerging economies and developing countries, in particular China and South-Asian countries, benefited low wages costs and most often undervalued currencies. However, global negotiations to reduce tariffs did not make any progress, as member countries of the World Trade Organization did not succeed in finding agreements to stretch the extent of free trade.[120] The Doha Round of negotiations, launched in 2001 by the WTO to promote development, failed to be completed because of growing tensions between regional areas. Nor did the Cancún Conference in 2003 find a consensus on services trade[121] and agricultural subsidies.[122]

The comparative rise of China, India, and other developing countries also contributed to their growing clout in international fora. In 2009, it was determined that the G20, originally a forum of finance ministers and central bank governors, would replace the G8 as the main economic council.

Events in the confidence crisis included recalls on consumer goods such as pet food, toys, toothpaste, lipstick, and a ban on certain types of seafood. Also included are reports on the poor crash safety of Chinese automobiles, slated to enter the American and European markets in 2008. This created adverse consequences for the confidence in the safety and quality of mainland Chinese manufactured goods in the global economy.

The age of turbulence[edit]

The decade was marked by two financial and economic crises. In 2000, the Dot-com bubble burst, causing turmoil in financial markets and a decline in economic activity in the developed economies, in particular in the United States.[123] However, the impact of the crisis on the activity was limited thanks to the intervention of the central banks, notably the U.S. Federal Reserve System. Indeed, Alan Greenspan, leader of the Federal Reserve until 2006, cut the interest rates several times to avoid a severe recession,[124] allowing an economic revival in the U.S.[125]

As the Federal Reserve maintained low interest rates to favor economic growth, a housing bubble began to appear in the United States. In 2007, the rise in interest rates and the collapse of the housing market caused a wave of loan payment failures in the U.S. The subsequent mortgage crisis caused a global financial crisis, because the subprime mortgages had been securitized and sold to international banks and investment funds. Despite the extensive intervention of central banks, including partial and total nationalization of major European banks,[126][127] the crisis of sovereign debt became particularly acute, first in Iceland, though as events of the early 2010s would show, it was not an isolated European example. Economic activity was severely affected around the world in 2008 and 2009,[128] with disastrous consequences for carmakers.[129]

In 2007, the UK's Chancellor of the ExchequerGordon Brown, delivered his final Mansion House speech as Chancellor before he moved into Number 10. Addressing financiers: "A new world order has been created", Everyone needed to follow the City's "great example", "an era that history will record as the beginning of a new Golden Age".[130]

Reactions of governments in all developed and developing countries against the economic slowdown were largely inspired by keynesian economics. The end of the decade was characterized by a Keynesian resurgence,[131] while the influence and media popularity of left-wing economists[132]Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman (Nobel Prize recipients in 2001 and 2008, respectively) did not stop growing during the decade.[133] Several international summits were organized to find solutions against the economic crisis and to impose greater control on the financial markets. The G-20 became in 2008 and 2009 a major organization, as leaders of the member countries held two major summits in Washington in November 2008 and in London in April 2009 to regulate the banking and financial sectors,[134] and also succeeding in coordinating their economic action and in avoiding protectionist reactions.

Energy crisis[edit]

From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation-adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under $25/barrel. During 2003, the price rose above $30, reached $60 by August 11, 2005, and peaked at $147.30 in July 2008.[135] Commentators attributed these price increases to many factors, including reports from the United States Department of Energy and others showing a decline in petroleum reserves, worries over peak oil, Middle East tension, and oil price speculation.[136]

For a time, geopolitical events and natural disasters indirectly related to the global oil market had strong short-term effects on oil prices. These events and disasters included North Korean missile tests, the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon, worries over Iranian nuclear plants in 2006 and Hurricane Katrina. By 2008, such pressures appeared to have an insignificant impact on oil prices given the onset of the global recession. The recession caused demand for energy to shrink in late 2008 and early 2009 and the price plunged as well. However, it surged back in May 2009, bringing it back to November 2008 levels.[137]

Many fast-growing economies throughout the world, especially in Asia, also were a major factor in the rapidly increasing demand for fossil fuels, which—along with fewer new petroleum finds, greater extraction costs, and political turmoil—forced two other trends: a soar in the price of petroleum products and a push by governments and businesses to promote the development of environmentally friendly technology (known informally as "green" technology). However, a side-effect of the push by some industrial nations to "go green" and utilize biofuels was a decrease in the supply of food and a subsequent increase in the price of the same. It partially caused the 2007 food price crisis, which seriously affected the world's poorer nations with an even more severe shortage of food.[138]

The rise of the euro[edit]

A common currency for most E.U.member states, the euro, was established electronically in 1999, officially tying all the currencies of each participating nation to each other. The new currency was put into circulation in 2002 and the old currencies were phased out. Only three countries of the then 15 member states decided not to join the euro (The United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden). In 2004 the E.U.undertook a major eastward enlargement, admitting 10 new member states (eight of which were former communist states). Two more, Bulgaria and Romania, joined in 2007, establishing a union of 27 nations.

The euro has since become the second largest reserve currency and the second most traded currency in the world after the US$.[139] As of October 2009[update], with more than €790 billion in circulation, the euro was the currency with the highest combined value of banknotes and coins in circulation in the world, having surpassed the US$.[note 1]

2004 - The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission successfully reached the surface of Mars in 2004, and sent detailed data and images of the landscape there back to Earth. Opportunity discovers evidence that an area of Mars was once covered in water. Both rovers were each expected to last only 90 days, however both completely exceeded expectations and continued to explore through the end of the decade and beyond.

Other[edit]

2003 - Fossils of a new dwarf species of human, Homo floresiensis, were discovered on the island of Flores, Indonesia. (report published initially October 2004).

2006 - As a result of the discovery of Eris, a Kuiper Belt object larger than Pluto, Pluto is demoted to a "dwarf planet" after being considered a planet for 76 years, redefining the solar system to have eight planets and three dwarf planets.

A huge jump in broadband internet usage globally – for example, from 6% of U.S. internet users in June 2000[158] to what one mid-decade study predicted would be 62% by 2010.[159] By February 2007, over 80% of U.S. Internet users were connected via broadband and broadband internet has been almost a required standard for quality internet browsing.[160]

Wireless internet became prominent by the end of the decade, as well as internet access in devices besides computers, such as mobile phones and gaming consoles.

Email became a standard form of interpersonal written communication, with popular addresses available to the public on Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail.

Normalisation became increasingly important as massive standardized corpora and lexicons of spoken and written language became widely available to laypeople, just as documents from the paperless office were archived and retrieved with increasing efficiency using XML-based markup.

Peer-to-peer technology gained massive popularity with file sharing systems enabling users to share any audio, video and data files or anything in digital format, as well as with applications which share real-time data, such as telephony traffic.

VPNs (virtual private networks) became likewise accessible to the general public, and data encryption remained a major issue for the stability of web commerce.

Boom in music downloading and the use of data compression to quickly transfer music over the Internet, with a corresponding rise of portable digital audio players. As a result, the entertainment industry struggled through the decade to find digital delivery systems for music, movies, and other media that reduce copyright infringement and preserve profit.

In February 2003, Dell announced floppy drives would no longer be pre-installed on Dell Dimension home computers, although they were still available as a selectable option and purchasable as an aftermarket OEM add-on.[161] On 29 January 2007, PC World stated that only 2% of the computers they sold contained built-in floppy disk drives; once present stocks were exhausted, no more standard floppies would be sold.[162]

With the advent of the Web 2.0, dynamic technology became widely accessible, and by the mid-2000s, PHP and MySQL became (with Apache) the backbone of many sites, making programming knowledge unnecessary to publish to the web. Blogs, portals, and wikis become common electronic dissemination methods for professionals, amateurs, and businesses to conduct knowledge management typified by success of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia which launched on January 15, 2001, grew rapidly and became the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet[163][164] as well as the best known wiki in the world and the largest encyclopedia in the world.

During this decade certain websites and search engines became prominent worldwide as transmitters of goods, services and information. Some of the most popular and successful online sites or search engines of the 2000s included Google, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, eBay, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

More and more businesses began providing paperless services, clients accessing bills and bank statements directly through a web interface.

In 2007 - The fast food chain McDonald's announced the introduction of free high speed wireless internet access at most of its 1,200 restaurants by the end of the year in a move which will make it the UK's biggest provider of such a service.[165]

Video[edit]

Digital cameras become widely popular due to rapid decreases in size and cost while photo resolution steadily increases. As a result, the digital cameras largely supplanted the analog cameras and the integration into mobile phones increase greatly. Since 2007, digital cameras started being manufactured with the face recognition feature built in.[citation needed]

DVR devices such as TiVo became popular, making it possible to record television broadcasts to a hard drive-based digital storage medium and allowing many additional features including the option to fast-forward through commercials or to use an automatic Commercial skipping feature. This feature created controversy, with major television networks and movie studios claiming it violates copyright and should be banned. With the commercial skipping feature, many television channels place advertisements on the bottom on the TV screen.[citation needed]

VOD technology became widely available among cable users worldwide, enabling the users to select and watch video content from a large variety of available content stored on a central server, as well as gaining the possibility to freeze the image, as well as fast-forward and rewind the VOD content.

DVDs, and subsequently Blu-ray Discs, replace VCR technology as the common standard in homes and at video stores.[citation needed]

Free Internet video portals like YouTube, Hulu, and Internet TV software solutions like Joost became new popular alternatives to TV broadcasts.[citation needed]

TV becomes available on the networks run by some mobile phone providers, such as Verizon Wireless's Vcast.[citation needed]

"High-definition television" becomes very popular towards the second half of the decade, with the increase of HD television channels and the conversion from analog to digital signals.[168]

Communications[edit]

The popularity of mobile phones and text messaging surged in the 2000s in the Western world.

The popularity of mobile phones and text messaging surged in the 2000s in the Western world. The advent of text messaging made possible new forms of interaction that were not possible before, leading to positive implications such as having the ability to receive information on the move. Nevertheless, it also led to negative social implications such as "cyberbullying" and the rise of traffic collisions caused by drivers who were distracted as they were texting while driving. One such problem was the fad of Happy Slapping in Europe, in which an individual assaults an unwitting victim while others record the assault (commonly with a camera phone or a smartphone). Though the name usually refers to relatively minor acts of violence such as hitting or slapping the victim, more serious crimes such as manslaughter,[169]rape, and sexual assault have been classified as "happy slapping" by the media.[170]

Mobile internet, first launched in Japan with the i-mode in 1999, became increasingly popular with people in developed countries throughout the decade, thanks to improving cell phone capabilities and advances in mobile telecommunications technology, such as 3G.

E-mail continued to be popular throughout the decade, and began to replace "snail mail" (also known, more neutrally, as paper mail, postal mail, land mail, or simply mail or post) as the primary way of sending letters and other messages to people in faraway locations, though it has been available since 1971.

The Hybrid vehicles market, which became somewhat popular towards the middle of the decade, underwent major advances notably typified by such cars as the Toyota Prius, Ford Escape, and the Honda Insight though by December 2010 they accounted for less than 0.5% of the world cars.

Car styling in the 2000s differed throughout the decade. Many automakers strayed from the round and ovoid designs of the 1990s in favor of more boxy, angular designs – the Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 being notable examples. Many vehicles, especially crossovers, were abstract and futuristic, a trend started by the successful Nissan Murano and Infiniti FX crossovers.

Production of the Boeing 757, Boeing's largest single-aisle airliner, ended with no replacement.[174]

Concorde a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner or supersonic transport (SST), was retired in 2003 due to a general downturn in the aviation industry after the type's only crash in 2000, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and a decision by Airbus, the successor firm of Aerospatiale and BAC, to discontinue maintenance support.

HSL-Zuid opened in 2009, linking Amsterdam to the European high-speed network for the first time.[179]

Other[edit]

GPS (Global Positioning System) becomes very popular especially in the tracking of items or people, and the use in cars (see Automotive navigation systems). Games that utilize the system, such as geocaching, emerge and become popular.

Green laser pointers[180] appeared on the market circa 2000, and are the most common type of DPSS lasers (also called DPSSFD for "diode pumped solid state frequency-doubled").

In late 2004 and early 2005, came a significant increase in reported incidents linked to laser pointers - see Lasers and aviation safety. The wave of incidents may have been triggered in part by "copycats" who read press accounts of laser pointer incidents. In one case, David Banach of New Jersey was charged under federal Patriot Act anti-terrorism laws, after he allegedly shone a laser pointer at aircraft.[181]

Chip and PIN is the brand name adopted by the banking industries in the United Kingdom and Ireland for the rollout of the EMV smart card payment system for credit, debit and ATM cards.

Chip and PIN was trialled in Northampton, England from May 2003, and as a result was rolled out nationwide in the United Kingdom in 2004 with advertisements in the press and national television touting the "Safety in Numbers" slogan.

In 2009, Tesco (a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer) opened its first UK branch at which service robots were the only option at the checkout, in Kingsley, Northampton – its US chain, Fresh & Easy, already operates several branches like this.[182]

September 7, 2009, an EU watchdog warns of an "alarming increase" in cash machine fraud by organised criminal gangs across Europe using sophisticated skimming technology, together with an explosion in ram-raiding attacks on ATMs.

ATM crime in Europe jumped to €485m (£423m) in 2008 following a 149% rise in attacks on cash machines. Gangs are turning to Bluetooth wireless technology to transmit card and personal identification number (PIN) details to nearby laptops and using increasingly sophisticated techniques to skim cards.

More conventional smash-and-grab attacks are also on the rise, says Enisa, the European Network and Information Security Agency. It reports a 32% rise in physical attacks on ATMs, ranging from ram raids to the use of rotary saws, blowtorches and diamond drills. It blames the increase on gangs from eastern Europe.[183]

Religion and Irreligion[edit]

New Atheism is the name given to the ideas promoted by a collection of modern atheist writers who have advocated the view that "religion should not simply be tolerated but should be countered, criticized, and exposed by rational argument wherever its influence arises."[184]

Under the Bush administration, organizations that promote abstinence and encourage teens to sign virginity pledges or wear purity rings have received federal grants. The Silver Ring Thing, a subsidiary of a Pennsylvania evangelical church, has received more than $1 million from the government to promote abstinence and to sell its rings in the United States and abroad.

In 2001, lawsuits were filed in the United States and Ireland, alleging that some priests had sexually abused minors and that their superiors had conspired to conceal and otherwise abet their criminal misconduct.[196] In 2004, the John Jay report tabulated a total of 4,392 priests and deacons in the U.S. against whom allegations of sexual abuse had been made.

November 2009 - Minaret controversy in Switzerland: A referendum, a constitutional amendment banning the construction of new Mosque minarets was approved, sparking reactions from governments and political parties throughout of the world.

2009 - In Pope Benedict XVI's third encyclicalCaritas in Veritate, he warns that a purely technocrat mindset where decisions are made only on grounds of efficiency will not deliver true development. Technical decisions must not be divorced from ethics. Benedict discusses bioethics and states that practices such as abortion, eugenics and euthanasia are morally hazardous and that accepting them can lead to greater tolerance for various forms of moral degradation. He turns to another consequence of the technocratic mindset, the viewing of people's personalities in purely psychological terms at the exclusion of the spiritual, which he says can lead to people feeling empty and abandoned even in prosperous societies.

Population and social issues[edit]

The decade saw further expansion of LGBT rights, with many European, Oceanic, and American countries recognizing civil unions and partnerships and a number of countries extending civil marriage to same-sex couples. The Netherlands was the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001. By 2010, same-sex marriage was legal and performed in 10 countries worldwide, although only in some jurisdictions in Mexico and the United States.

Population continued to grow in most countries, in particular in developing countries, though overall the rate slowed. According to United Nations estimates, world population reached six billion in late 1999,[197] and continued to climb to 6.8 billion in late 2009.[198] In 2007 the population of the United States reached 300 million inhabitants, and Japan's population peaked at 127 million before going into decline.[199]

What is wrong with everyone nowadays? Why do they all seem to think they are qualified to do things far beyond their technical capabilities? This is to do with the learning culture in schools as a consequence of a child-centred system which admits no failure. People think they can all be pop stars, high court judges, brilliant TV personalities or infinitely more competent heads of state without ever putting in the necessary work or having natural ability. This is the result of social utopianism which believes humanity can be genetically and socially engineered to contradict the lessons of history ...[200]

Obesity is a leading preventable cause of death worldwide, with increasing prevalence in adults and children, and authorities view it as one of the most serious public health problems of the 21st century.[201]

In 2001, 46.4% of people in sub-Saharan Africa were living in extreme poverty.[202] Nearly half of all Indian children are undernourished, however, even among the wealthiest fifth one third of children are malnourished.[203][204]

The programme was introduced by the UK Department of Health in the winter of 2002-2003, and received some adverse media attention because of the high and rising costs of fresh fruit and vegetables. After ten years, research suggested that few people were meeting the target.[206]

The London congestion charge is a fee charged on most motor vehicles operating within the Congestion Charge Zone (CCZ) in central London between 07:00 and 18:00 Monday to Friday. It is not charged at weekends, public holidays or between Christmas Day and New Year's Day (inclusive).[1] The charge, which was introduced on 17 February 2003, remains one of the largest congestion charge zones in the world.

On 3 December 2003, New Zealand passed legislation to progressively implement a smoking ban in schools, school grounds, and workplaces by December 2004.[207] On 29 March 2004, Ireland implemented a nationwide ban on smoking in all workplaces. In Norway, similar legislation was put into force on 1 June the same year. Smoking was banned in all public places in the whole of the United Kingdom in 2007, when England became the final region to have the legislation come into effect (the age limit for buying tobacco was also raised from 16 to 18 on 1 October 2007). From 2004 to 2009, the UK’s Merseyside police officers, conducted 1,389 section 60 stop and searches (without reasonable suspicion), rising to 23,138 within five years.[208]

In 2005 the cost of alcohol dependence and abuse was estimated to cost the US economy approximately 220 billion dollars per year, more than cancer and obesity.[209]

The number of antidepressants prescribed by the NHS in the United Kingdom almost doubled during one decade, authorities reported in 2010. Furthermore, the number highly increased in 2009 when 39.1 million prescriptions were issued compared with 20.1 million issued in 1999.[citation needed]

In the United States a 2005 independent report stated that 11% of women and 5% of men in the non-institutionalized population (2002) take antidepressants. The use of antidepressants in the United States doubled over one decade, from 1996 to 2005.[210]

Antidepressant drugs were prescribed to 13 million in 1996 and to 27 million people by 2005. In 2008, more than 164 million prescriptions were written.[210]

In the UK, the number of weddings in 2006 was the lowest for 110 years.[211]

Jamie Oliver, is a British chef, restaurateur, media personality, known for his food-focused television shows and cookbooks. In 2006, Oliver began a formal campaign to ban unhealthy food in British schools and to get children eating nutritious food instead. Oliver's efforts to bring radical change to the school meals system, chronicled in the series Jamie's School Dinners, challenged the junk-food culture by showing schools they could serve healthy, cost-efficient meals that kids enjoyed eating.[212] Jamie's efforts brought the subject of school dinners to the political forefront and changed the types of food served in schools.[213]

In 2006, nearly 11 million Plastic surgery procedures were performed in the United States alone. The number of cosmetic procedures performed in the United States has increased over 50 percent since the start of the century.[citation needed]

In November 2006, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) announced that it would ban television advertisements for junk food before, during and after television programming aimed at under-16s in the United Kingdom.[217] These regulations were originally outlined in a proposal earlier in the year.[218] This move has been criticized on both ends of the scale; while the Food and Drink Federation labelled the ban "over the top", others have said the restrictions do not go far enough (particularly due to the fact that soap operas would be exempt from the ban).[219] On 1 April 2007, junk food advertisements were banned from programmes aimed at four to nine-year-olds.[220] Such advertisements broadcast during programmes "aimed at, or which would appeal to," ten to fifteen-year-olds will continue to be phased out over the coming months,[221] with a full ban coming into effect on 1 January 2009.[220]

November 10, 2006 - referring to the UK's annual poppy appeal, British journalist and presenter Jon Snow condemned the attitude of those who insist remembrance poppies are worn. He claimed: there is a rather unpleasant breed of poppy fascism out there.[222]

In October 2008 AFP reported on the further expansion of killings of albinos to the Ruyigi region of Burundi. Body parts of the victims are then smuggled to Tanzania where they are used for witch doctor rituals and potions.[224] Albinos have become "a commercial good", commented Nicodeme Gahimbare in Ruyigi, who established a local safe haven in his fortified house.[224]

A 2009 study, found a 30% increase in Chinese diabetes over 7 years.[citation needed]

Environment and climate change[edit]

Climate change and global warming became household words in the 2000s. Predictions tools made significant progress during the decade, UN-sponsored organisations such as the IPCC gained influence, and studies such as the Stern report influenced public support for paying the political and economic costs of countering climate change.

The global temperature kept climbing during the decade. In December 2009, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the 2000s may have been the warmest decade since records began in 1850, with four of the five warmest years since 1850 having occurred in this decade.[225][226] The WMO's findings were later echoed by the NASA and the NOAA.[227]

Major natural disasters became more frequent and helped change public opinion. One of the deadliest heat waves in human history happened during the 2000s, mostly in Europe, with the 2003 European heat wave killing 37,451 people over the summer months.[228] In February 2009, a series of highly destructive bushfires started in Victoria, Australia, lasting into the next month. While the fires are believed to have been caused by arson, they were widely reported as having been fueled by an excessive heatwave that was due in part to climate change. It has also been alleged that climate change was a cause of increased storms intensity, notably in the case of Hurricane Katrina.

Under the auspices of The UN Convention on Climate Change the Kyoto Protocol (aimed at combating global warming) entered into force on February 16, 2005. As of November 2009, 187 states have signed and ratified the protocol.[229] In addition The UN Convention on Climate Change helped coordinate the efforts of the international community to fight potentially disastrous effects of human activity on the planet and launched negotiations to set an ambitious program of carbon emission reduction that began in 2007 with the Bali Road Map. However, the representatives of the then 192 member countries of the United Nations gathered in December 2009 for the Copenhagen Conference failed to reach a binding agreement to reduce carbon emissions because of divisions between regional areas.

Culture[edit]

Fine Arts[edit]

Lucian Freud, was a German-born British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impastoed portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time.[231]

During a period from May 2000 to December 2001, Freud painted Queen Elizabeth II. There was criticism of this portrayal of the Queen in some sections of the British media. The highest selling tabloid newspaper, The Sun, was particularly condemnatory, describing the portrait as "a travesty".[232]

The Hockney–Falco thesis is a controversial theory of art history, advanced by artist David Hockney and physicist Charles M. Falco, suggesting that advances in realism and accuracy in the history of Western art since the Renaissance were primarily the result of optical aids such as the camera obscura, camera lucida, and curved mirrors, rather than solely due the development of artistic technique and skill. In a 2001 book, Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, Hockney analyzed the work of the Old Masters and argued that the level of accuracy represented in their work is impossible to create by "eyeballing it". Since then, Hockney and Falco have produced a number of publications on positive evidence of the use of optical aids, and the historical plausibility of such methods.

Rolf Harris is an Australian entertainer. He is a musician, a singer-songwriter, a composer, a painter, and a television personality.

In April–June 2003, the English visual artists often known as The Chapman Brothers, held a solo show at Modern Art Oxford entitled The Rape of Creativity in which "the enfants terribles of Britart, bought a mint collection of Goya's most celebrated prints - and set about systematically defacing them".[233] The Francisco Goya prints referred to his Disasters of War set of 80 etchings.[233] The duo named their newly defaced works Insult to Injury.[233]BBC described more of the exhibition's art: "Drawings of mutant Ronald McDonalds, a bronze sculpture of a painting showing a sad-faced Hitler in clown make-up and a major installation featuring a knackered old caravan and fake dog turds."[234]The Daily Telegraph commented that the Chapman brothers had "managed to raise the hackles of art historians by violating something much more sacred to the art world than the human body - another work of art"[235]

As a protest against this piece, Aaron Barschak (who later gate-crashed Prince William's 21st birthday party dressed as Osama bin Laden in a frock) threw a pot of red paint over Jake Chapman during a talk he was giving in May 2003.

On May 5, 2004, a 1905 painting titled Garçon à la Pipe (English: Boy with a Pipe) by Pablo Picasso was sold for US$104,168,000 at Sotheby'sauction in New York City. At the time, it broke the record for the amount paid for an auctioned painting (when inflation is ignored). The amount, US$104 million, includes the auction price of US$93 million plus the auction house’s commission of about US$11 million. Many art critics have stated that the painting's high sale price has much more to do with the artist's name than with the merit or historical importance of the painting. The Washington Post's article[236][237] on the sale contained the following characterisation of the reaction:

Picasso expert Pepe Karmel, reached in New York the morning after the sale, was waxing wroth about the whole affair. "I'm stunned," he said, "that a pleasant, minor painting could command a price appropriate to a real masterwork by Picasso. This just shows how much the marketplace is divorced from the true values of art."

In 2004, during Channel 5 (UK)'s 'Big Art Challenge' television program, despite declaring: "I hold video and photography in profound contempt." English art critic Brian Sewell noted for artistic conservatism and has been described as "Britain's most famous and controversial art critic".[239] and went on to at least 3 times hail video artist (and ultimately the competition's winner) Chris Boyd (aged 21) a "genius".[240][241]

In June 2007, the English artist, entrepreneur and art collector Damien Hirst gained the European record for the most expensive work of art by a living artist, when his Lullaby Spring, (a 3-metre-wide steel cabinet with 6,136 pills) sold for 19.2 million dollars.

In September 2008, Damien Hirst took an unprecedented move for a living artist by selling a complete show, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, at Sotheby's by auction and by-passing his long-standing galleries. The auction exceeded all predictions, raising £111 million ($198 million), breaking the record for a one-artist auction.

December 9, 2009 – when the most expensive drawing by an Old Master ever, was sold in an auction. Titled 'Head of a Muse' by Raphael; costing £29,200,000 ($47,788,400), at Christie's, London, UK.[242]

The phenomenally successful Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling is concluded in July 2007 (having been first published in 1997), although the movie franchise continues until 2011; several spin-off productions are announced in the early 2010s. The Harry Potter series is to date the best-selling book series in world history, with only seven main volumes (and three supplemental works) published and four hundred and fifty million[245] copies sold. The movie franchise is also the currently highest-grossing film franchise in history, with eight movies (all but the final two of which were released in the 2000s) and $7,723,431,572 in sales.

Architecture[edit]

Commercialization and globalization resulted in mass migration of people from rural areas to urban areas resulting in high-profile skyscrapers in Asia and Europe. In Asia skyscrapers were constructed in India, China, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan.

The Millennium Bridge, London officially known as the London Millennium Footbridge, is a steel suspension bridge for pedestrians crossing the River Thames in London, England, linking Bankside with the City. Londoners nicknamed the bridge the "Wobbly Bridge" after participants in a charity walk on behalf of Save the Children to open the bridge felt an unexpected, and, for some, uncomfortable, swaying motion on the first two days after the bridge opened. The bridge was closed later that day, and after two days of limited access the bridge was closed for almost two years while modifications were made to eliminate the wobble entirely. It was reopened in 2002.

30 St Mary Axe (informally also known as "the Gherkin" and previously the Swiss Re Building) is a skyscraper in London's financial district, the City of London, completed in December 2003 and opened at the end of May 2004. The building has become an iconic symbol of London and is one of the city's most widely recognised examples of modern architecture.

Wembley Stadium is a football stadium located in Wembley Park, in the Borough of Brent, London, England. It opened in 2007 and was built on the site of the previous 1923 Wembley Stadium. The earlier Wembley stadium, originally called the Empire Stadium, was often referred to as "The Twin Towers" and was one of the world's most famous football stadia until its demolition in 2003.

A major redevelopment of London's Trafalgar Square led by WS Atkins with Foster and Partners as sub-consultants was completed in 2003. The work involved closing the main eastbound road along the north side, diverting the traffic around the other three sides of the square, demolishing the central section of the northern retaining wall and inserting a wide set of steps leading up to a pedestrianised terrace in front of the National Gallery. The construction includes two lifts for disabled access, public toilets, and a small café. Previously, access between the square and the Gallery was by two crossings at the northeast and northwest corners of the square.[246]

December 2009's Avatar, an American epic science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, made extensive use of cutting edge motion capture filming techniques,[247] and was released for traditional viewing, 3D viewing (using the RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, XpanD 3D, and IMAX 3D formats), and for "4D" experiences in select South Korean theaters.[citation needed] The stereoscopic filmmaking was touted as a breakthrough in cinematic technology.[248]

3D films became more and more successful throughout the 2000s, culminating in the unprecedented success of 3D presentations of Avatar.

In August 2004, American horror author Stephen King, in a column, criticized what he saw as a growing trend of leniency towards films from critics. His main criticism was that films, citing Spider-Man 2 as an example, were constantly given four star ratings that they did not deserve: "Formerly reliable critics who seem to have gone remarkably soft – not to say softhearted and sometimes softheaded – in their old age."[251]

In July 2005, it was reported that the Scottish actor and producer Sir Sean Connery had decided to retire, due to disillusionment with the "idiots now in Hollywood"' Telling the New Zealand Herald: "I'm fed up with the idiots... the ever-widening gap between people who know how to make movies and the people who greenlight the movies."[252]

The Passion of the Christ, a 2004 American film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus Christ, was highly controversial and received mixed reviews; however, it was a major commercial hit, grossing in excess of $600 million[where?] during its theatrical release, becoming the highest grossing R-rated film of all time.[citation needed]

In the 2000s, the Internet allowed consumers unprecedented access to music. The Internet also allowed more artists to distribute music relatively inexpensively and independently without the previously necessary financial support of a record label. Unfortunately, music sales began to decline following the year 2000, a state of affairs generally attributed to unlicensed uploading and downloading of sound files to the Internet, a practice which became more widely prevalent during this time. Business relationships called 360 deals—an arrangement in which a company provides support for an artist, and, in exchange, the artist pays the company a percentage of revenue earned not only from sales of recorded music, but also live performances and publishing—became a popular response by record labels to the loss of music sales attributed to online copyright infringement. [257][258]

In the 2000s Hip hop reached a commercial peak and heavily influenced various aspects of pop culture and, in general, dominating the musical landscape of the decade.[259][260] In fact, the best-selling musical artist of the decade was the American rapperEminem, who sold 32 million albums. Other popular hip hop artists included Jay-Z, Nas, Kanye West, OutKast, Cam'ron, Pharrell, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Nelly, and The Game. The genre was extremely diverse stylistically, including subgenres such as gangsta rap and Hyphy. Many hip hop albums were released to widespread critical acclaim.

Billboard magazine named Eminem as the artist with the best performance on the Billboard charts and named Beyoncé as the female artist of the decade.[261][262] In the UK, the biggest selling artist of the decade is Robbie Williams* and the biggest selling band of the decade is Westlife. American recording artist Michael Jacksondied on June 25, 2009, creating the largest public mourning since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.[263][264][265] On August 25, 2001, Aaliyah Haughton - an American recording artist, dancer, actress and model and eight others, were killed in an airplane crash in The Bahamas after filming the music video for the single "Rock the Boat". On April 25, 2002, Lisa Lopes an American: rapper, dancer, and singer-songwriter, best known as a member of the R&B/hip-hop girl group TLC by her stage name Left Eye, was killed in a car crash in La Ceiba, Honduras. On October 30, 2002, Jason William Mizell (Jam Master Jay) from the Run-D.M.C hiphop group, was shot and killed in a Merrick Boulevard recording studio in Jamaica, Queens. Innovator, inventor, performer and guitar virtuoso Les Paul also died on August 12, 2009 at the age of 94. In 2002, Robbie Williams signed a record-breaking £80 million contract with EMI.[266] So far it is the biggest music deal in British history.

The 2000s gave rise a new trend in popular music in the proliferation of Auto-Tune. In the early 2000s, autotune had been common with artists such as *NSYNC and Eiffel 65.[258] Towards the end of the decade, electronic dance music began to dominate western charts (as it would proceed to in the following decade), and in turn helped contribute to a diminishing amount of rock music in the mainstream.[267][268]Hip hop music also saw a decline in the mainstream in the late 2000s because of electronic music's rising popularity.[269]

According to The Guardian, music styles during the 2000s changed very little from how they were in the latter half of the 1990s.[270] The 2000s had a profound impact on the condition of music distribution. Recent advents in digital technology have fundamentally altered industry and marketing practices as well as players in unusual rapidity.[271][272][273] According to Nielsen Soundscan, by 2009 CDs accounted for 79 percent of album sales, with 20 percent coming from digital, representing both a 10 percent drop and gain for both formats in 2 years.[274]

Michael Jackson's final album, Invincible, released on October 30, 2001, and costing $30m to record, was the most expensive record ever made.[275]

The general socio-political fallout of Iraq War also extended to popular music. In July 2002, the release of English musician George Michael's song "Shoot the Dog" proved to be controversial. It was critical of George W. Bush and Tony Blair in the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The video showed a cartoon version of Michael astride a nuclear missile in the Middle East and Tony and Cherie Blair in bed with President Bush. The Dixie Chicks are an American country music band. During a London concert ten days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, lead vocalist Maines said, "we don't want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States [George W. Bush] is from Texas".[276] The positive reaction to this statement from the British audience contrasted with the boycotts that ensued in the U.S., where "the band was assaulted by talk-show conservatives",[277] while their albums were discarded in public protest.[277] The original music video for the title song from American pop singer Madonna's American Life album was banned as music television stations thought that the video, featuring violence and war imagery, would be deemed unpatriotic since America was then at war with Iraq.[278]

Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland from 6–8 July 2005; they also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. Run in support of the aims of the UK's Make Poverty History campaign and the Global Call for Action Against Poverty, ten simultaneous concerts were held on 2 July and one on 6 July. On 7 July, the G8 leaders pledged to double 2004 levels of aid to poor nations from US$25 billion to US$50 billion by the year 2010. Half of the money was to go to Africa. More than 1,000 musicians performed at the concerts, which were broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks.[279]

Joyce Hatto (5 September 1928 – 29 June 2006) was a British concert pianist and piano teacher. Married in 1956 to William Barrington-Coupe, a British record producer convicted of fraud in 1966, Hatto attracted notoriety very late in life when unauthorised copies of commercial recordings made by other pianists were released under her name, earning her high praise from critics. The fraud did not come to light until a few months after her death.

"...We want to thank everyone that participated in this incredible, organic, grass-roots campaign. It says more about the spontaneous action taken by young people throughout the UK to topple this very sterile pop monopoly."

During the late 2000s, a new wave of chiptune culture took place, boosted by the release of software such as LittleSoundDJ[280] for the Game Boy. This new culture has much more emphasis on live performances and record releases than the demoscene and tracker culture, of which the new artists are often only distantly aware.[281]

On 9 May 2006, British five-piece vocal pop Take That returned to the recorded music scene after more than ten years of absence, signing with Polydor Records. The band's comeback album, Beautiful World, entered the UK album chart at no. 1.[283]

On 10 December 2007 English rock band Led Zeppelin reunited for the one-off Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert at The O2 Arena in London. According to Guinness World Records 2009, Led Zeppelin set the world record for the "Highest Demand for Tickets for One Music Concert" as 20 million requests for the reunion show were rendered online.[284]

Brass Eye is a UK television series of satirical spoof documentaries. A series of six aired on Channel 4 in 1997, and a further episode in 2001. The series was created by Chris Morris.

The series was repeated in 2001 along with a new show. It tackled paedophilia and the moral panic in parts of the British media following the murder of Sarah Payne, focusing on the name-and-shame campaign conducted by the News of the World in its wake.

Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy: Super Bowl XXXVIII, which was broadcast live on February 1, 2004 from Houston, Texas on the CBS television network in the United States, was noted for a controversial halftime show in which singer Janet Jackson's breast, adorned with a nipple shield, was exposed by singer Justin Timberlake for about half a second, in what was later referred to as a "wardrobe malfunction". The incident, sometimes referred to as Nipplegate, was widely discussed. Along with the rest of the halftime show, it led to an immediate crackdown and widespread debate on perceived indecency in broadcasting.[citation needed]

January 2005 - Jerry Springer: The Opera was the subject of controversy, when its UK television broadcast on BBC Two elicited 55,000 complaints. The most complained about television event ever.[289]

In May 2005, UK viewers inundated the Advertising Standards Authority with complaints regarding the continuous airing of the latest Crazy Frog advertisements. The intensity of the advertising was unprecedented in British television history. According to The Guardian, Jamster bought 73,716 spots across all TV channels in May alone — an average of nearly 2,378 slots daily — at a cost of about £8 million, just under half of which was spent on ITV. 87% of the population saw the Crazy Frog adverts an average of 26 times, 15% of the adverts appeared twice during the same advertising break and 66% were in consecutive ad breaks. An estimated 10% of the population saw the advert more than 60 times. This led to many members of the population finding the crazy frog, as its original name suggests, immensely irritating.[290]

Blue Peter (the world's longest-running children's television programme) rigged a phone-in competition supporting the UNICEF "Shoe Biz Appeal" on 27 November 2006. The person who appeared to be calling in the competition was actually a Blue Peter Team Player who was visiting that day. The visitor pretended to be a caller from an outside line who had won the phone-in and the chance to select a prize. The competition was rigged due to a technical error with receiving the calls.[291]

Ended series[edit]

Tomorrow's World was a long-running BBC television series, showcasing new developments in the world of science and technology. First aired on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003.

That '70s show was an American television period sitcom based on the 1970s decade. The 1970s retro style permeated the 2000s decade. The show ended on May 18, 2006.

Brookside is a British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003.

In January 2004, the BBC cancelled the Kilroy show (which had run for 18 years), after an article entitled 'We owe Arabs nothing' written by its host Robert Kilroy-Silk was published in the Sunday Express tabloid newspaper.

Friends is an American sitcom which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004. Friends received positive reviews throughout its run, and its series finale ranked as the fifth most watched overall television series finale as well as the most watched single television episode of the 2000s on U.S. television.

Frasier, a spin-off TV series of Cheers (that ended in 1993), is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004 (only a week after the broadcast of the final episode of Friends). It was one of the most successful spin-off and popular series in television history, as well as one of the most critically acclaimed comedy series.

On 20 June 2006, after 42 years, British music chart show Top of the Pops was formally cancelled and it was announced that the last edition would be broadcast on 30 July 2006.

Grandstand is a British television sport program. Broadcast between 1958 and 2007, it was one of the BBC's longest running sports shows.

After 30 years, British television drama series Grange Hill (originally made by the BBC) was cancelled and the last episode was shown on 15 September 2008.

Series returns[edit]

The Flower Pot Men is a British children's programme, produced by BBC television, first transmitted in 1952, and repeated regularly for more than twenty years, which was produced in a new version in 2000.

Absolutely Fabulous, also known as Ab Fab, is a British sitcom. The show has had an extended and sporadic run. The first three series were broadcast on the BBC from 1992 to 1995, followed by a series finale in the form of a two-part television film entitled The Last Shout in 1996. Creator Jennifer Saunders revived the show for a fourth series in 2001.

Gadget and the Gadgetinis is a spinoff of the classic series Inspector Gadget (1983 to 1986), developed by DiC in cooperation with Haim Saban's SIP Animation and produced from 2001 to 2003. There are 52 episodes.

Basil Brush from 1962 to 1984, The Basil Brush Show from 2002 to 2007. Basil Brush is a fictional anthropomorphic red fox, best known for his appearances on daytime British children's television. He is primarily portrayed by a glove puppet.

Shooting Stars is a British television comedy panel game broadcast on BBC Two as a pilot in 1993, then as 3 full series from 1995 to 1997, then on BBC Choice from January to December 2002 with 2 series before returning to BBC Two for another 3 series from 2008 until its cancellation in 2011.

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The show is a significant part of British popular culture. The programme originally ran from 1963 to 1989. After an unsuccessful attempt to revive regular production in 1996 with a backdoor pilot in the form of a television film, the programme was relaunched in 2005.

Family Fortunes is a British game show, based on the American game show Family Feud. The programme ran on ITV from 6 January 1980 to 6 December 2002 before being revived by the same channel in 2006 under the title of All Star Family Fortunes. Revived episodes are currently being shown on ITV on Sunday evenings and have been presented by Vernon Kay since 2006.

Gladiators is a British television entertainment series, produced by LWT for ITV, and broadcast between October 10, 1992 and January 1, 2000. It is an adaptation of the American format American Gladiators. The success of the British series spawned further adaptations in Australia and Sweden. The series was revived in 2008, before again being cancelled in 2009.

Rab C. Nesbitt is a British sitcom which began in 1988. The first series began on 27 September 1990 and continued for seven more, ending on 18 June 1999 and returning with a one-off special on 23 December 2008.[294]

Radio[edit]

The 2000s saw a decrease in the popularity of radio as more listeners starting using MP3 players in their cars to customize driving music. Satellite radio receivers started selling at a much higher rate, which allowed listeners to pay a subscription fee for thousands of ad-free stations. Clear Channel Communications was the largest provider of radio entertainment in the United States with over 900 stations nationwide. Many radio stations began streaming their content over the Internet, allowing a market expansion far beyond the reaches of a radio transmitter.

August 27, 2001 - Hot 97 shock jock Star (real name Troi Torain) was suspended indefinitely for mocking R&B star Aaliyah's death on the air. by playing a tape of a woman screaming while a crash is heard in the background. Close to 32,000 people signed a "No More Star" online petition.[295]

In a 2008 edition of his (American) radio show, John Gibson commented on Australian actor Heath Ledger's death the day before. He opened the segment with funeral music and played a clip of Jake Gyllenhaal's famous line "I wish I knew how to quit you" from Ledger's film Brokeback Mountain; he then said "Well, I guess he found out how to quit you." Among other remarks, Gibson called Ledger a "weirdo" with "a serious drug problem".[296] The next day, he addressed outcry over his remarks by saying that they were in the context of jokes he had been making for months about Brokeback Mountain, and that "There's no point in passing up a good joke."[297] Gibson later apologized on his television and radio shows.[298][299]

The Grand Theft Auto series sparked a fad of Mature-rated video games based on including gang warfare, drug use, and perceived "senseless violence" into gameplay. Though violent video games date back to the early 1990s, they became much more common after 2000.

The Call of Duty series was extremely popular during the 2000s, the diverse shooter franchise released multiple games throughout the 2000s that were positively critically reviewed and commercially successful.

Gears of War was a critically acclaimed and commercially successful third-person shooter franchise that released two games during the mid-late 2000s. Gears of War 1 was released in 2006 and was the first installment to the franchise, it was universally critically acclaimed and went on to sell over 5 million copies. The second installment to the franchise Gears of War 2 was released in 2008 and received widespread critical acclaim and also went on to sell over 5 million copies.

October 29, 2007 - Manhunt 2 - a controversial stealth-based psychological horrorvideo game published by Rockstar Games was suspended by Take-Two Interactive (Rockstar's parent company) when it was refused classification in the United Kingdom, Italy and Ireland, and given an Adults Only (AO) rating in the United States. As neither Sony nor Nintendo allow AO titles on their systems, this effectively meant the game was banned in the US.

The 7th generation sparked a rise in first person shooting games led by Halo: Combat Evolved, which changed the formula of the first person shooter. Halo 2 started online console gaming and was on top of the Xbox live charts until its successor, Halo 3, took over. Some other popular first-person shooters during the 2000s include the Medal of Honor series, with Medal of Honor: Frontline's release in 2002 bringing the first game in the series to 7th generation consoles.

In the late 2000s, motion controlled video games grew in popularity, from the PlayStation 2's EyeToy to Nintendo's successful Wii console. During the decade 3D video games become the staple of the video-game industry, with 2D games nearly fading from the market. Partially 3D and fully 2D games were still common in the industry early in the decade, but these have now become rare as developers look almost exclusively for fully 3D games to satisfy the increasing demand for them in the market. An exception to this trend is the indie gaming community, which often produces games featuring 'old-school' or retro gaming elements, such as Minecraft and Shadow Complex. These games, which are not developed by the industry giants, are often available in the form of downloadable content from services such as Microsoft's Xbox Live or Apple's App Store and usually cost much less than more major releases.

Dance Dance Revolution was released in Japan and later the United States, where it became immensely popular among teenagers. Another music game, Guitar Hero, was released in North America in 2005 and had a huge cultural impact on both the music and video games industries. It became a worldwide billion-dollar franchise within three years, spawning several sequels and leading to the creation of a competing franchise, Rock Band.

Japanese media giant Nintendo released 9 out of the 10 top selling games of the 2000s, further establishing the company's dominance over the market.[300]

Arcade video games had declined in popularity so much by the late 1990s, that revenues in the United States dropped to $1.33 billion in 1999,[301] and reached a low of $866 million in 2004.[302] Furthermore, by the early 2000s, networked gaming via computers and then consoles across the Internet had also appeared,[303] replacing the venue of head-to-head competition and social atmosphere once provided solely by arcades.[304]

The arcades also lost their status as the forefront of new game releases.

Worldwide, arcade game revenues gradually increased from $1.8 billion in 1998 to $3.2 billion in 2002, rivalling PC game sales of $3.2 billion that same year.[305] In particular, arcade video games are a thriving industry in China, where arcades are widespread across the country.[306] The US market has also experienced a slight resurgence, with the number of video game arcades across the nation increasing from 2,500 in 2003 to 3,500 in 2008, though this is significantly less than the 10,000 arcades in the early 1980s. As of 2009, a successful arcade game usually sells around 4000 to 6000 units worldwide.[307]

Sega Corporation usually styled as SEGA, is a Japanese multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Japan, with various offices around the world. Sega previously developed and manufactured its own brand of home video game consoles from 1983 to 2001, but a restructure was announced on January 31, 2001 that ceased continued production of its existing home console, effectively exiting the company from the home console business.[308]

Neo Geo is a family of video game hardware developed by SNK. The brand originated in 1990 with the release of an arcade system, the Neo Geo MVS and its home console counterpart, the Neo Geo AES. The Neo Geo brand was officially discontinued in 2004.

Sports[edit]

The Sydney Games, held in 2000, followed the hundredth anniversary of the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. The Athens Games, in 2004, were also a strong symbol, for modern Olympic Games were inspired by the competitions organized in Ancient Greece. Finally, the Beijing Games saw the emergence of China as a major sports power, with the highest number of titles for the first time. The 2002 Salt Lake City and the 2006 Turin Winter Olympic Games were also major events, though less popular.

A number of concerns and controversies over the 2008 Summer Olympics surfaced before, during, and after the 2008 Summer Olympic games, and which received major media coverage. Leading up to the Olympics, there were concerns about human rights in China, such that many high-profile individuals, such as politicians and celebrities, announced intentions to boycott the games to protest China's role in the Darfur conflict, and Myanmar, its stance towards Tibet, or other aspects of its human rights record.

In a 2008 TIME magazine article entitled "Why Nobody's Boycotting Beijing", Vivienne Walt wrote: 'Leaders in power are more mindful of China's colossal clout in an increasingly shaky world economy, and therefore of the importance of keeping good relations with its government.'[309]

Usain Bolt of Jamaica dominated the male sprinting events at the Beijing Olympics, in which he broke three world records, allowing him to be the first man to ever accomplish this at a single Olympic game. He holds the world record for the 100 metres (despite slowing down before the finish line to celebrate), the 200 metres and, along with his teammates, the 4 × 100 metres relay.

The rise of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the decline of the WWE started to bring wrestling fans away from wrestling and say wrestling was not real and was only for entertainment.

The Fox hunting sport is controversial, particularly in the UK, where it was banned in Scotland in 2002, and in England and Wales in November 2004 (law enforced from February 2005), though shooting foxes as vermin remained legal.

Ron Atkinson, is an English former football player and manager. In recent years he has become one of Britain's best-known football pundits. Ron Atkinson's media work came to an abrupt halt on 21 April 2004, when he was urged to resign from ITV by Brian Barwick after he broadcast a racial remark live on air about the blackChelsea player Marcel Desailly; believing the microphone to be switched off, he said, "...he [Desailly] is what is known in some schools as a lazy nigger".[313]

Association football's important events included two World Cups, one organized in South Korea, Japan, which saw Brazil win a record fifth title, and the other in Germany, which saw Italy's fourth title. The regional competitions Copa América and Euro Cup saw 5 nations rising the cup, Colombia (2001) and Brazil (2004, 2007) won the Copa América, and France (2000), Greece (2004) and Spain (2008) won the Euro Cup.

Bloodgate is the nickname for a rugby union scandal involving the English team Harlequins in their Heineken Cup match against the Irish side Leinster on 12 April 2009. It was so called because of the use of fake blood capsules, and has been seen by some as one of the biggest scandals in rugby since professionalisation in the mid-1990s, indeed even as an argument against the professional ethos. The name is a pun on Watergate.

The 2006 Italian football scandal involved Italy's top professional football leagues, Serie A and Serie B. The scandal was uncovered in May 2006 by Italian police, implicating league champions Juventus, and other major teams including AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, and Reggina when a number of telephone interceptions showed a thick network of relations between team managers and referee organisations. Juventus were the champions of Serie A at the time. The teams have been accused of rigging games by selecting favourable referees.

2006 FIFA World Cup Final in Berlin, Zinedine Zidane widely considered by experts and fans as one of the greatest football players of all time, was sent off in the 110th minute of the game, which was to be the last match of his career; after headbutting Marco Materazzi in the chest, so he did not participate in the penalty shootout which Italy won 5–3. It was later discovered through interviews that Materazzi had insulted Zidane's mother and sister that last moment which is what led to Zidane's heightened anger and reaction.

October 2007 – US world champion track and field athlete Marion Jones admitted that she took performance-enhancing drugs as far back as the 2000 Summer Olympics, and that she had lied about it to a grand jury investigating performance-enhancer creations.

November 29, 2007 – Portsmouth F.C. football manager Harry Redknapp angrily denied any wrongdoing after being arrested by police investigating alleged corruption in football: "If you are telling me this is how you treat anyone, it is not the society I grew up in."[318]

British Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton, was disqualified from the 2009 Australian Grand Prix for providing "misleading evidence" during the stewards' hearing. He later privately apologised to FIA race director Charlie Whiting for having lied to the stewards.

Manga(also known as Japanese comics) became popular among the international audience, mostly in English-speaking countries. Such popular manga works include Lucky Star, FullMetal Alchemist, and Naruto.

July 19, 2001, an English author and former politician Jeffrey Archer, was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at a 1987 libel trial. He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment.

Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up or Peter and Wendy is J. M. Barrie's most famous work, in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel, respectively.

October 2, 2006 - Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion becomes an international bestseller, provokes many responding books and its success has been seen by many as indicative of a change in the contemporary cultural zeitgeist.

Fashion[edit]

Fashion trends of the decade drew much inspiration from 1960s, 1970s and 1980s styles. Hair styles included the bleached and spiked hair for boys and men and long and straight hair for girls and women continued, as well as many other hairstyles from the mid-late 1990s. Kelly Clarkson made chunky highlights fashionable in 2002 on American Idol and lasted until about 2007. Both women and men highlighted their hair until the late 2000s.[325]

The decade started with the futuristic Y2K fashion which was built on hype surrounding the new millennium. This dark, slinky style remained popular until 9/11 occurred and casual fashions had made a comeback once again.[326] Baggy cargo pants were extremely popular among both sexes[327] throughout the early and mid 2000s until about late 2007. Bell-bottoms were the dominant pant style for women until about 2006 when fitted pants began rising in popularity.[328] The late 1990s-style baggy pants remained popular throughout the early 2000s, but by 2003 boot-cut pants and jeans became the standard among men[329] until about 2008.

The 2000s saw a revival of 1980s fashion trends such as velour tracksuits in the early 2000s (an early 1980s fashion), and tapered pants in the later years (a late 1980s fashion). Skinny jeans became a staple clothing for young women and men by 2009 with the Jerkin' movement playing a large part in the popularization of skinny jeans. Mass brands Gap and Levi launched their own lines for skinny jeans.[330][331]

Emo fashion became popular amongst teenagers from 2005-2009, associated with the success of bands associated with the subculture (such as My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy). The style is commonly identified with wearing black/dark coloured skinny jeans, T-shirts bearing the name of emo music groups and long side-swept bangs, often covering one or both eyes.[338][339] The Scene subculture that emerged in the mid-late 2000s drew much inspiration from Emo style.[340]

Print media[edit]

The decade saw the steady decline of sales of print media such as books, magazines, and newspapers, as the main conveyors of information and advertisements, in favor of the Internet and other digital forms of information.[343][344][345]

News blogs grew in readership and popularity; cable news and other online media outlets became competitive in attracting advertising revenues and capable journalists and writers are joining online organizations. Books became available online, and electronic devices such as Amazon Kindle threatened the popularity of printed books.[346][347]

Journalism[edit]

"It was, we were soon told, 'the day that changed everything', the 21st century's defining moment, the watershed by which we would forever divide world history: before, and after, 9/11." ~ The Guardian[349]

I do think that he and the newspapers he's run have introduced an uglier side, an abusive side, into journalism and life in general in this country.

He says this Murdochisation of national discourse, which was at its height in the UK with The Sun in the 1980s, has now migrated to the US. "Murdoch encouraged an ugly tone, which he has now imported into the US and which we see every day on Fox News, with all its concomitant effects on American public life – that fierce hostility between right and left that never used to be there, not to anything remotely like the same extent."[350]

On September 11, [2001] watching TV replays of the buildings exploding over and over again in New York and Washington, I couldn’t help thinking about all the times media coverage has protected us from similar horrors elsewhere. During the Gulf War, for instance, we didn’t see real buildings exploding or people fleeing, we saw a sterile Space Invader battlefield, a bomb’s-eye view of concrete targets – there and then none. Who was in those abstract polygons? We never found out.[351]

So, Talking Points urges the Pentagon to stop the P.R. dance and impose strict rules of conduct for the Iraqi people to follow. Law-abiding Iraqis want that. It's only the gangsters and the fanatics who don't. Shoot looters to kill, and aim well.
And that's The Memo.[353]

A poll released in 2004, by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, found that 21 percent of people aged 18 to 29 cited The Daily Show (an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday) and Saturday Night Live (an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show) as a place where they regularly learned presidential campaign news. By contrast, 23 percent of the young people mentioned ABC, CBS or NBC’s nightly news broadcasts as a source. When the same question was asked in 2000, Pew found only 9 percent of young people pointing to the comedy shows, and 39 percent to the network news shows. One newspaper, Newsday, has The Daily Show's host Jon Stewart, listed atop a list of the 20 media players who will most influence the upcoming presidential campaign. Random conversations with nine people, aged 19 to 26, waiting to see a taping of The Daily Show, revealed two who admitted they learned much about the news from the program. None said they regularly watched the network evening news shows.[354]

The Guardian, is a British national daily newspaper. In August 2004, for the US presidential election, The Guardian's daily "G2" supplement launched an experimental letter-writing campaign in Clark County, Ohio, an average-sized county in a swing state. G2 editor Ian Katz bought a voter list from the county for $25 and asked readers to write to people listed as undecided in the election, giving them an impression of the international view and the importance of voting against US President George W. Bush. The paper scrapped "Operation Clark County" on 21 October 2004 after first publishing a column of complaints from Bush supporters about the campaign under the headline "Dear Limey assholes".[355] The public backlash against the campaign likely contributed to Bush's victory in Clark County.[356]

March 2005 – Twenty MPs signed a British House of Commons motion condemning the BBCNewsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman for saying that "a sort of Scottish Raj" was running the UK. Mr Paxman likened the dominance of Scots at Westminster to past British rule in India.[357]

August 30, 2008 – three years before the 2011 England riots, The Socialist Worker wrote: "Those who have responded to the tragedy of knife crime by calling for police crackdowns ought to take note. The criminalisation of a generation of black youth will undoubtedly lead to explosions of anger in the future, just as it did a generation ago with the riots that swept Britain's inner cities."[358]

I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm... so, kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions.

In December 2008, Time magazine named Barack Obama as its Person of the Year for his historic candidacy and election, which it described as "the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments".[361]

^"Security Council Condemns, 'In Strongest Terms', Terrorist Attacks on the United States". United Nations. September 12, 2001. Archived from the original on September 9, 2006. Retrieved September 11, 2006. The Security Council today, following what it called yesterday's "horrifying terrorist attacks" in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, unequivocally condemned those acts, and expressed its deepest sympathy and condolences to the victims and their families and to the people and Government of the United States.

^"Bin Laden claims responsibility for 9/11". CBC News. October 29, 2004. Archived from the original on January 24, 2009. Retrieved January 11, 2009. al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden appeared in a new message aired on an Arabic TV station Friday night, for the first time claiming direct responsibility for the 2001 attacks against the United States.

^"Questions and Answers". Israel's Security Fence. The State of Israel. February 22, 2004. Archived from the original on 2013-10-03. Retrieved April 17, 2007. The Security Fence is being built with the sole purpose of saving the lives of the Israeli citizens who continue to be targeted by the terrorist campaign that began in 2000. The fact that over 800 men, women and children have been killed in horrific suicide bombings and other terror attacks clearly justifies the attempt to place a physical barrier in the path of terrorists. It should be noted that terrorism has been defined throughout the international community as a crime against humanity. As such, the State of Israel not only has the right but also the obligation to do everything in its power to lessen the impact and scope of terrorism on the citizens of Israel.

^Nissenbaum, Dion (January 10, 2007). "Death toll of Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians hit a low in 2006". Washington Bureau. McClatchy Newspapers. Archived from the original on 2008-11-20. Retrieved April 16, 2007. Fewer Israeli civilians died in Palestinian attacks in 2006 than in any year since the Palestinian uprising began in 2000. Palestinian militants killed 23 Israelis and foreign visitors in 2006, down from a high of 289 in 2002 during the height of the uprising. Most significant, successful suicide bombings in Israel nearly came to a halt. Last year, only two Palestinian suicide bombers managed to sneak into Israel for attacks that killed 11 people and wounded 30 others. Israel has gone nearly nine months without a suicide bombing inside its borders, the longest period without such an attack since 2000[...] An Israeli military spokeswoman said one major factor in that success had been Israel's controversial separation barrier, a still-growing 250-mile (400 km) network of concrete walls, high-tech fencing and other obstacles that cuts through parts of the West Bank. ‘The security fence was put up to stop terror, and that's what it's doing,’ said Capt. Noa Meir, a spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces. [...] Opponents of the wall grudgingly acknowledge that it has been effective in stopping bombers, though they complain that its route should have followed the border between Israel and the Palestinian territories known as the Green Line. [...] IDF spokeswoman Meir said Israeli military operations that disrupted militants planning attacks from the West Bank also deserved credit for the drop in Israeli fatalities.

^Ed Douglas. "Inside Nepal's Revolution..... (just to check..!!!)". National Geographic Magazine, p. 54, November 2005. Douglas lists the following figures: "Nepalis killed by Maoists from 1996 to 2005: 4,500. Nepalis killed by government in same period: 8,200."

^"NASA's LCROSS Impacts Confirm Water in Lunar Crater" (Press release). NASA. November 13, 2009. Archived from the original on November 21, 2009. Retrieved November 21, 2009. Preliminary data from NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater.

^Alex Woodson (July 8, 2007). "Wikipedia remains go-to site for online news". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 21, 2007. Retrieved December 16, 2007. Online encyclopedia Wikipedia has added about 20 million unique monthly visitors in the past year, making it the top online news and information destination, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

^Hanley, Charles J. (December 8, 2009). "UN: 2000–2009 likely warmest decade on record". Google News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on December 18, 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2009. This decade is on track to become the warmest since records began in 1850, and 2009 could rank among the top-five warmest years, the U.N. weather agency reported Tuesday on the second day of a pivotal 192-nation climate conference.

^The BBC on Harry Potter: "The Harry Potter novels have sold more than 450 million copies through Bloomsbury in Britain, and Scholastic in the United States." (23 June 2011) Archived July 19, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article ( 2000s (decade) ); it is used under the
GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.